THE AWKWARD MOM

because uncomfortable conversations are the ones worth having

Category: Holidays; Occasions (page 2 of 7)

Poems for an Easter Weekend

Reading Time: 2 minutes

easter weekend

FRIDAY

With its teeth, iron tears and plugs

Wrists that held; healed.

It stills the soles painted with read more

Where’s God Working in My Kids in 2022? 10 Questions

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kids in 2022

Okay, yes, I am this big Enneagram 2, and I am frequently caught “two-ing” in my family—overfunctioning like a crazy person, sublimating any needs of my own, etc.

But I also have this monstrous, flapping-larger-than-my-triceps 3-wing. Which means, for all of you unfamiliar with enneagram-speak, that I am an achiever.  Goal-setting can fill my sails (…to the point of what we’ll call “Christian workaholism”). read more

2021 Best Posts of the Year!

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But for the last few days, I’d been sifting through a few emotions about 2022. A new year comes with some gravity–especially after a tough 2021 for my family.

Recently I completed a yearly prayer of Examen–my second year of a new personal tradition. Like the Israelites standing at the Jordan and choosing stones of remembrance (Joshua 4), I’m looking back at how I’ve seen God writing His story in and around me. And how his presence has met me there. read more

A Christmas Blessing. Sort of

Reading Time: 4 minutes

May all your kids come home, and may they get along with each other. Or at least fake it.

May you have a white Christmas to the point that you feel Christmas-y and can say no to an activity you didn’t really want to go to, but don’t lose electricity and heat. May everyone wipe their boots. read more

11 Thanksgiving Printables: Kids’ Activities & Scripture Art!

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kids thanksgiving activities

Confession: My heavenly intentions for Thanksgiving are often clobbered by my oh-so-real life.

I would love to be preparing our hearts all month for gratitude, but I find myself picking up someone else’s rank gym socks. I would love to be stuffing a jar with slips of paper declaring our thankfulness, but can tend to stave off a little more teenage complaining instead…?  read more

New Year 2021: Ideas to Put the “New” Back In

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New Year 2021

While living in Uganda, my language acquisition developed to an equivalent of that drunken-sailor lurch of a new toddler. That is, my ability to speak resembled lurching, grinning, and occasionally falling on my rear.

And of course just because you can speak a language doesn’t mean you use it in the same ways. I’d occasionally get weird looks for wishing someone Merry Christmas (Seku Kulu enungi!) in December. Apparently Ugandans keep this phrase pretty much for Christmas day. read more

Christmas 2020 Needs a God Born in a Barn

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Christmas 2020

Thoughts from a Messy Christmas 2020

Note from Janel: This week I’m vacating with my family–or soon attempting to, after the errands are finished and we sink into full-on celebration mode. 

So I’m sliding in these thoughts, most originally published three years ago, which have followed me around like a pet pig. read more

[Stuck at] Home for Christmas? 15 Ideas for a Little More Jolly

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home for Christmas

Since 2020 is on its way out, it apparently needed to swipe one more holiday. Go big or go home, right? Or just stay home. Alllll year. “Home for Christmas” may not have the same ring when you’ve been home for Easter, home for Thanksgiving, home for everything!

But in all honesty, though I sorely miss our extended family, I continue to find a lot of hidden gifts in a year with overt,  sadness and fear. read more

[Being] Present: 7 Ways to Be “All There” with God This Christmas

Reading Time: 4 minutes
being present Minor confession: In the midst of putting out our family’s prayer letter last week…I declined a call. My husband walked into the kitchen, and I had this look like your dog would when it pees on the carpet. I explained my sheepishness. “Why do you feel guilty about that?” he asked, direct as ever. “I want to be the kind of person who will drop everything and be present with whoever needs it,” I shrugged. His eyes had this kind look around the edges. “You know you can only be present by shutting other stuff out, right? You’re present with our financial supporters [my husband and I are supported missionaries with Engineering Ministries International] right now. When you’re present with someone else, you’re shutting out other things you could be paying attention to.” I literally thought about the post I wrote about being distracted with others–and how to be fully, powerfully present. We all know what it’s like to compete with headphones or a smartphone. So often in my attempts to be everywhere, to be everything to everyone, I’m not “all there” with anyone.

Being present is about being there…by not being somewhere else. 

So to be present, it’s fair to say there are boundaries involved.  When it comes to Christmas, being present with God is sucked away by schedules and material stuff and worry: the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful (Mark 4:19). The Psalmist prays, Unite my heart to fear your name (Psalm 86:11). I wonder if I was on God’s mind when he penned this one…because at Christmas, my heart can be going in about 167,856 directions at once.

I’m just not all there with him.

So I’m pulling ideas together to help me/you hone in on being “all there” this Christmas, starting with our audience of One. being present

Don’t do something.

To an already-packed schedule, Christmas can feel a bit like “more bricks, less straw.”

If your goal is being present in the ways that matter, cut out a few of the “have-to’s” that aren’t. read more

Free Printable Postcards for Kids!

Reading Time: 3 minutes

free printable postcards for kids

Anyone else–after Thanksgiving away from family–feeling a little sad?

My kids have cousins and grandparents they won’t have seen for a year. Though I obviously hate this pain on a number of levels–I love that my kids (including three teenagers!) were visibly bummed when Thanksgiving was canceled with their grandparents, and cousins half their age.  read more

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